Gary’s side of the story……
In 2014 my partner and I decided to venture abroad out of South Africa to explore new beginnings in a far far away land and we settled on New Zealand as our new home. Many reasons for this choice of country, however, the similarity between the South African lifestyle and Kiwi culture allowed a smooth transition into a new country with the added bonus of having family here and also an already established personal network. 6 years later with new beginnings comes a blank canvas to rewrite one’s career and after almost 20 years of carving out a career in Insurance and Financial Services emigration presented an opportunity to reassess my priorities and what was next.
With that in mind, I set out to understand how the insurance and financial services sector in NZ operated and where my skill set would best fit in the sector, however, in my exploratory travels I was approached by an Australian based recruitment business who was in the beginning stages of setting up in NZ and this is where I met Lisa Gray who was their NZ Country Director at the time and I found myself joining the business as a specialist recruiter focusing on the Wealth sector. I also had realised that my knowledge gained through my insurance and financial services career would be a great foundation to embark in the recruitment sector focusing on clients and candidates in this area of expertise…..and so my NZ recruitment career began. Fast forward another 5 years and Lisa and I have found ourselves working together once again following Lisa’s exit from our original employer to set up Tyler Wren. I have been establishing our Financial Services and Design & Build streams, the success of this has resulted in myself joining the Board as a Director and Shareholder sitting alongside Lisa as joint Managing Director. This has been a culmination of many efforts to step back into a senior leadership career in a new country in a new industry to elevate back to the directorship level.
Together Lisa & I are the yin and yang of each other both offering differing perspectives and skillsets bringing together an amazing team, building on our specialist recruitment verticals across New Zealand and Australia.
Lisa’s side of the story
Pretty much what he said…..Gary has worked hard to build Tyler Wren’s reputation within the FS and Insurance space and added Design & Build to his repertoire. My expertise in Chartered Accounting and Legal has allowed us to keep true to the TW piece of skill short markets.
We are both excited and committed to continuing to work closely with our candidates and clients to ensure that we offer experience, support and management for those who enjoy a productive relationship with their recruiter. Running the wider business and continuing to drive steady growth and success for all of those involved is far easier with two people who possess a range of skills and “on the same page”.
I am absolutely over the moon that Gary has joined the Directorship and we are both looking forward to the future.
Finally, Gary and I have a great team working with us and feel extremely grateful and lucky that our colleagues have just as much passion for TW as we do – thanks so much Vikki Cox; Natasha Toehemotu; Ben Holloway; Stevie Doubleday;